weight loss news

What time do you usually eat lunch every day? I'm firmly in the 12:30 camp, but I admit there are days filled with so much busy-ness that I find myself thinking about lunch a little later...like 5 P.M., which I guess technically no longer qualifies as lunch. But new research is indicating that if you're trying to lose weight, it might be better to eat lunch on the early side. According to the results of study in the International Journal of Obesity times of day may play significant roles in how our bodies regulate weight. In the study, 420 participants in Spain were all on the Mediterranean diet, where 40 percent of the day's calories are eaten at lunchtime. About half of them said they ate lunch before 3 P.M.; the other half said they ate lunch after 3 P.M. The early eaters lost about 22 pounds, while late eaters lost 17. (What time they ate breakfast or dinner wasn't linked to weight loss.) The researchers say that one reason for the difference in weight loss could be due to glucose tolerance--our bodies are better able to deal with sugar earlier in the day than later. Also, people who eat read more

With so many (so, so many!) diet options out there, have you ever wondered which actually works? Join the club! About 45 million Americans go on a diet every year, spending $33 billion on weight-loss products. U.S. News and World Report put together a panel of experts to scrutinize 29 popular diet plans, ranking them by how easy they are to follow, how nutritious, safe, and effective for weight loss they are, and how well they work to decrease the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Here are the top five, as chosen by the experts: 1: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH): The diet is meant to lower blood pressure, emphasizing fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat dairy, and keeping sugary treats, red meat, and salt to a minimum. The lack of salt might be hard to get used to at first, but experts say that the diet is convenient and easy to stick to because it's not too restrictive. 2: Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC): Created by the National Institutes of Health, this diet aims to boost cardiovascular health with major cutbacks on saturated fat intake (like whole dairy, fried foods, and fatty meats). For women who read more

We sometimes like to poke fun at old health trends--I, myself, quite enjoy the fact that exercise machines like these were all the rage back in the day--but it turns out that some were more than just trends. Because they actually work. Why? There's something appealing about retro foods, because they're "often minimally processed, easy to eat, and so low in calories and fat they're almost guaranteed to work." Plus, says Phil Lempert, food trend expert and founder of Supermarketguru.com, we're getting burned out with diet gimmicks. Case in point: cottage cheese, a must-have diet food in the 1970s. But stars like Samantha Harris are now turning to low-fat cottage cheese because it's filled with the kind of protein that makes you feel fuller, longer. Another one? Grapefruit. The grapefruit diet has been around since the 1930s, and celebs like Jessica Simpson and Lauren Conrad have incorporated it into their eating plans. Now, experts say that eating grapefruit can reduce insulin levels, which aids in weight loss. Even rice cakes--which I totally remember my grade-school teachers nibbling on during lunch hours--has been given the OK as a low-calorie snack food. Interesting! Are there any "retro" foods you like eating now--or read more

When it comes to slimming down, attitude, apparently, plays a big role! Special K (yes, the cereal brand), recently surveyed weight-conscious women across the country and they say that overall, women who are more positive about weight loss are more likely to lose and keep the weight off than those who tend to approach things from a more negative place. Fascinatingly, the study found that: *Women who think positively about weight management were more likely to achieve their specific weight loss goals. *Not only did women who think positively about their weight management report that they were more successful in losing or maintaining their weight, they were actually eight times less likely to report having gained weight than women who think negatively. *Women who think positively about weight management report that they are 25% more likely to succeed in maintaining their weight *9 out of 10 women who think positively about weight management reported either losing weight or maintaining their weight in the past year, compared to only about half of women with a negative approach. Guess it's time to start thinking happy thoughts, huh? Do you have a positive attitude about fitness and weight loss, or do you read more